The present invention relates to a television receiver, and an additional information transmitting method for transmitting a television signal in which a program or commercial and additional information relating to, or more specific than, the program or commercial are multiplexed. More specifically, the invention relates to a television receiver that can collect and record the additional information as desired, and a method for multiplexing the additional information with an MPEG2-Video stream.
In recent television broadcasting, xe2x80x9cmultiple broadcastingxe2x80x9d for transmitting a television signal in which an ordinary program or commercial and information relating to, or more specific than, the program or commercial are multiplexed by VBI multiplexing or FM multiplexing, has been put to practical use. This broadcasting system has an advantage over conventional systems in that it can transmit more information within a given broadcasting time. However, for the user who receives the information, it is necessary to set the receiver in the multiple broadcast receiving mode and refer to the additional information all the time. This sometimes results in oversupply of information, and means for arranging a flood of information is needed.
However, there has conventionally been no television receiver capable of arranging such additional information with high efficiency. Hence, under the existing circumstances, the user sets the receiver in the multiple broadcast receiving mode to receive the additional information and displays the information on the screen to see the information. As a method for recording the received additional information, it is thinkable to record the information received in the multiple broadcast receiving mode as it is in a video recorder or the like. In this case, however, to record only required information, the recording operation of the video recorder must be performed only when the required information appears, while referring to the additional information displayed on the screen, and this process is very complicated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a television receiver that can select, at user""s request, additional information being broadcasted simultaneously with a broadcasted program and that can rearrange the additional information to make a data base.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a television receiver that can be applicable to digital broadcasting and that can take only desired additional information by selecting, at user""s request, an icon displayed in a prescribed position on a picture.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an additional information transmitting method wherein a digitally coded television signal and additional information are efficiently multiplexed and transmitted.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows. The detailed description and specific embodiments described are provided only for illustration since various additions and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art from the detailed description.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a television receiver receiving an analog video signal, comprises additional information detecting means for separating and extracting an additional information code from the analog video signal, and outputting the additional information code; additional information recording means for recording the additional information code output from the additional information detecting means; additional information writing switch means for passing or blocking the additional information code that is output from the additional information detecting means toward the additional information recording means, in response to a control signal; conversion means for converting the additional information code output from the additional information detecting means or the additional information code reproduced from the additional information recording means into a character or an image; and signal synthesizing means for synthesizing the analog video signal and the additional information that has been converted into a character or an image by the conversion means, and outputting the synthesized signal as a monitor output signal.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a television receiver receiving a digitally coded television signal, comprises digital television signal analyzing means for analyzing the digitally coded television signal, separating and extracting additional information included in the television signal from the television signal, and outputting the additional information as an additional information code; additional information recording means for recording the additional information code output from the digital television signal analyzing means; additional information writing switch means for passing or blocking the additional information code that is output from the digital television signal analyzing means toward the additional information recording means, in response to a control signal; conversion means for converting the additional information code output from the digital television signal analyzing means or the additional information code. reproduced from the additional information recording means into a character or an image; digital television signal decoding means for decoding the digitally coded television signal and outputting a video signal; and signal synthesizing means for synthesizing the video signal output from the decoding means and the additional information that has been converted into a character or an image by the conversion means, and outputting the synthesized signal as a monitor output signal.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned television receiver, the control signal controls the additional information writing switch means so that it passes the additional information code only when additional information designated by the user is detected.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a television receiver receiving a digitally coded television signal, comprises digital television signal analyzing means for analyzing the digitally coded television signal, separating and extracting additional information included in the television signal from the television signal, and outputting the additional information; image signal outputting means for decoding the digitally coded television signal with reference to the additional information output from the analyzing means, and outputting detailed information relating to the additional information as an image signal; image signal recording means for recording the image signal output from the image signal outputting means; image signal writing switch means for passing or blocking the image signal that is output from the image signal outputting means toward the image signal recording means, in response to a control signal; digital television signal decoding means for decoding the digitally coded television signal and outputting a video signal; and signal synthesizing means for synthesizing the video signal output from the decoding means and the image signal output from the image signal outputting means or the image signal read from the image signal recording means, and outputting the synthesized signal as a monitor output signal.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned television receiver, the digital television signal analyzing means separates and extracts a channel number or a still picture number including detailed information, as additional information, from the digitally coded television signal.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned television receiver, the control signal controls the image signal writing switch means so that it passes the image signal only when additional information designated by the user is detected.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a television receiver receiving a digitally coded television signal, comprises digital television signal analyzing means for analyzing the digitally coded television signal, separating and extracting additional information that shows the position of an image on a picture, which image is obtained by decoding the digitally coded television signal, from the television signal, and outputting the additional information; means for displaying an icon in a position on a monitor screen, which position is specified by the additional information output from the digital television signal analyzing means; means for selecting the icon; and image signal outputting means for decoding the digitally coded television signal when the icon is selected, and outputting, as an image signal, detailed information that is transmitted corresponding to the position of the icon.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned television receiver further comprises detailed information recording means for recording the detailed information.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in an additional information transmitting method for transmitting a digitally coded television signal in which a program or a commercial and additional information relating to, or more specific than, the program or commercial are multiplexed, additional information to be transmitted is written in a user data region of the digitally coded television signal when the additional information is transmitted.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned additional information transmitting method, transmitted as the additional information are a code showing an object that provides information, and one of a character information code and an image information code, which shows information of the object.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned additional information transmitting method, transmitted as the additional information are a code showing an object that provides information, and one of the number of a channel transmitting detailed information of the object and the number of a still picture displaying the detailed information of the object.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned additional information transmitting method, transmitted as the additional information are a code showing the position of an image on a screen, which image is obtained by decoding the digitally coded television signal, and one of the number of a channel transmitting detailed information corresponding to the position and the number of a still picture displaying detailed information corresponding to the position.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned additional information transmitting method, an MPEG2-Video stream is employed as the digitally coded television signal.